“Yisachar chamor gorem (Yisachar is a bony ox)” 49:14.
Like a donkey, Yisachar bent his shoulder to bear the yoke of Torah.
Seeing as the word “gorem” is missing a ‘Vav’, the phrase can also be translated as ‘Yisachar was brought about by a donkey’. Le’ah, it will be remembered, had bought Rachel’s rights in Ya’akov that night for the duda’im (the jasmin) that her son Reuven had given her. Ya’akov, unaware of the transaction, was making his way to Rachel’s tent, and it was the braying of Ya’akov’s donkey that Le’ah heard, that prompted her to go out to meet him and bring him to her tent instead. That night, Yisachar was conceived.
It can truly be said that both the cause and the effect of Yisachar were a donkey!
